Intelligent umbrella or robotic shading system having telephonic communication capabilities

Abstract

An intelligent umbrella comprises shading elements, a support assembly, coupled to the one or more shading elements, to provide support for the one or more shading elements, the support assembly comprising one or more microphones to capture audio commands. The intelligent umbrella further includes one or more processors, one or more memory modules and a cellular telecommunications transceiver, and a base assembly, coupled to the support assembly, to provide contact with a surface. Computer-readable instructions stored in the memory modules are executed by a processor to convert the captured audio commands into one or more audio files, generate one or more analog and/or digital phone transmission files based at least in part on the converted one or more audio files, and communicate the one or more analog and/or digital phone transmission files via the cellular transceiver to a base station to initiate transmission of a telephone call.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. An intelligent umbrella, comprising:
 one or more shading elements; 
 a support assembly, coupled to the one or more shading elements, to provide support for the one or more shading elements, the support assembly comprising one or more microphones to capture audio commands, one or more processors, one or more memory modules and a cellular telecommunications transceiver, 
 a base assembly, coupled to the support assembly, to provide contact with a surface, 
 wherein computer-readable instructions stored in the one or more memory modules are executable by the one or more processors to: 
 convert the captured audio commands into one or more audio files; 
 generate one or more analog and/or digital phone transmission files based at least in part on the converted one or more audio files; and 
 communicate the one or more analog and/or digital phone transmission files via the cellular transceiver to a base station to initiate transmission of a telephone call without utilizing a mobile computing device to initiate the telephone call. 
 
     
     
       2. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 1 , further comprising a database to store a plurality of names and corresponding plurality of phone numbers associated with a user of the intelligent umbrella. 
     
     
       3. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 2 , wherein to generate the one or more analog and/or digital phone transmission files further comprises computer-readable instructions executable by the one or more processors to:
 compare a portion of the one or more audio files to the plurality of names associated with the plurality of phone numbers in the database to identify a telephone number corresponding to the portion of the one or more audio files; and 
 initiate the transmission of the telephone call to the telephone number corresponding to the portion of the one or more audio files. 
 
     
     
       4. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 3 , wherein to generate the one or more analog and/or digital phone transmission files further comprises computer-readable instructions executable by the one or more processors to:
 generate the one or more analog and/or digital phone transmission files based at least in part on the identified telephone number. 
 
     
     
       5. An intelligent umbrella, comprising:
 one or more shading elements; 
 a support assembly, coupled to the one or more shading elements, to provide support for the one or more shading elements, the support assembly comprising one or more microphones to capture audio commands, one or more processors, one or more memory modules and a cellular telecommunications transceiver, 
 a base assembly, coupled to the support assembly, to provide contact with a surface, 
 wherein computer-readable instructions stored in the one or more memory modules are executed by the one or more processors to: 
 convert the captured audio commands into digital and/or analog audio files; 
 communicate the digital and/or analog audio files to a computing device, the computing device comprising a telephony software application to convert the communicated digital and/or analog files to analog or digital telephone transmission files, the telephony software application comprising computer-readable instructions executable by one or more processors on the computing device and not utilizing a mobile computing device to communicate the digital and/or analog audio files to the computing device. 
 
     
     
       6. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 5 , the support assembly further comprising an inner core assembly and a support assembly skin, wherein the support assembly skin is attached or connected to the inner core assembly. 
     
     
       7. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 6 , further comprising a wireless communication antenna, the wireless communication antenna coupled or connected to the cellular telecommunications transceiver. 
     
     
       8. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 7 , wherein the wireless communication antenna comprises a coil antenna, the coil antenna coupled and/or connected to the inner core assembly. 
     
     
       9. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 7 , wherein the wireless communication antenna comprises a coil antenna, the coil antenna coupled and/or connected to the support assembly skin. 
     
     
       10. The intelligent umbrella, comprising:
 one or more shading elements; 
 a support assembly, coupled to the one or more shading elements, to provide support for the one or more shading elements, the support assembly comprising one or more microphones to capture audio commands, one or more processors, one or more memory modules and a WiFi telecommunications transceiver, 
 a base assembly, coupled to the support assembly, to provide contact with a surface, 
 wherein computer-readable instructions stored in the one or more memory modules are executable by the one or more processors to: 
 convert the captured audio commands into audio files; 
 generate a plurality of digital telephone packets corresponding to the captured audio files; and 
 communicate the generated digital telephone packets via the WiFi telecommunications transceiver to a wireless communications router without utilizing a mobile computing device to generate the plurality of digital telephone packets. 
 
     
     
       11. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 10 , the support assembly further comprising an inner core assembly and a support assembly skin, wherein the support assembly skin is attached or connected to the inner core assembly. 
     
     
       12. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 11 , further comprising a wireless communication antenna, the wireless communication antenna coupled or connected to the WiFi telecommunications transceiver. 
     
     
       13. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 12 , wherein the wireless communication antenna comprises a coil antenna, the coil antenna coupled and/or connected to the inner core assembly. 
     
     
       14. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 12 , wherein the wireless communication antenna comprises a coil antenna, the coil antenna coupled and/or connected to the support assembly skin. 
     
     
       15. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 12 , wherein the wireless communication antenna comprises a metallic ring, the metallic ring coupled and/or connected to the support assembly skin. 
     
     
       16. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 12 , wherein the wireless communication antenna comprises a metallic ring, the metallic ring coupled and/or connected to the inner core assembly. 
     
     
       17. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 12 , wherein the wireless communication antenna is part of an integrated circuit or printed circuit board. 
     
     
       18. The intelligent umbrella of  claim 17 , wherein the integrated circuit or printed circuit board also comprises the WiFi communications transceiver. 
     
     
       19. The integrated umbrella of  claim 18 , wherein the wireless communication antenna is on a separate layer of the integrated circuit or printed circuit board. 
     
     
       20. The integrated umbrella of  claim 18 , wherein the wireless communication antenna is on a portion of one of the layers of the integrated circuit or printed circuit board.